Anyone have any suggestions on the best way to mask lettering? I want to make letter cutouts so the base paint becomes the coloring for the letters. I can do this for basic shapes and such but lettering seems more difficult than I thought. Any shortcuts, ideas, etc.?
Thanks 
You mean, the letter is the same colour as the background and has an outline?
The way I do this is:
Insert you letter in the colour of the background.
Take 4 copies of it and make sure they are before the original. Change them to the colour you want for the outline.
Go to the first one, select position shape and move. Move Up 5 (or what ever number) then move Right 5.
Go to the second one, select position shape and move. Move Right 5 then move Down 5.
Go to the third one, select position shape and move. Move Down 5 then move Left 5.
Go to the fourth one, select position shape and move. Move Left 5 then move Up 5.
This generally works fine with smaller moves as larger moves tend to not look right (don’t know if there’s a better way).
I think he’s just talking about making the letters ‘blank’ instead of the area around the letters, like this sort of thing:
And there’s no easy way- the way I do it is, if the font you want to use is in the game, put your text up and then do a background of a contrasting color. Then start using shapes to cover the background but leave the letters alone (I like to use a third color- say black for the background, white for the letters, and yellow for the cover shapes). Repeat as necessary (which means many, many times). The background isn’t 100% required, I just like the contrast more than one of the gray backgrounds in the game.
If the font you want isn’t in the game, then it’s even trickier, as first you have to draw the letters, then repeat those steps (it’s a lot easier than trying to create an outline around something that isn’t there).
edit- you can also do it in such a way as to be able to save the ‘reversed’ letters for future use, or for stamping if you have multiple copies of the same letter in your text.
Yes, this is what I meant. I was doing this already but I didn’t think of putting the contrasting background. It was quite difficult discerning colors with the default backgrounds. After about three hours of work, I have it 98% complete. I just need to finish the detailing around the curves of letters and straighten up some of the lines. The background idea will definitely come in handy for that.
I decided for my first time, I’d go with a text that was already in the game. My next set. I’d try making the letters first, building a background around them, then making the letter’s transparent. Don’t know if it will work but we’ll see lol.
The first idea given seems pretty cool also so I will tinker with also.
Thanks guys
you can just delete the letters after you create the area around them (if that’s what you meant then yes that will work lol)
Lol, uh yeah…that’s what I meant lol